Container Gardening While Waiting for Spring

Once the snow has melted from the garden, that familiar annual yearning to start working the soil to get a jump start on the growing season starts eating away at a garden lover. There is such a thing as starting your gardening work too early, though.

The soil in the spring garden needs a chance to warm up and dry out before the gardener to get to it. Try to get a head start before the soil is ready and the eager gardener can cause more harm than good as the soil compacts and tiny shoots of perennials are crushed.

In the spring, when the frost danger has passed, direct your attention to the window boxes and the tubs and pots and welcome the growing season by planting annuals. Take care in choosing the annual plants for the container garden if you live in an area susceptible to a late frost. Read more....

Declare a War on Moles in your Lawn and Garden

Moles. I hate it when they invade my garden. It's even worse when one of those destructive garden pests sneaks it's way into my garden shed or garage. Luckily that doesn't happen too often, but the damage a mole can do to the lawn and garden is costly and annoying.

The garden is meant to be a peaceful place. Working in the sunshine and relaxing in the well tended garden are two of the reasons those of us who do it love gardening so much.

Its a shame when pesky little critters invade our space and make a mockery of all of our hard work. Well, I'm not going to put up with it. I'm declaring a war on the mole in my lawn and garden.

Rid the Lawn and Garden of Moles

Pest Control for Tunneling Ground Moles

Dec 4, 2009 Patrice Campbell

Get Rid of Moles - Wendy Pastorius

Moles tunnel just below the soil surface for insects, grubs and worms to eat. Active year round, these garden pests leave unsightly damage to the lawn and garden.

Moles can be removed from a garden by trapping, flooding or driving them away with repellents. Placing an electronic vibration device or even a child’s toy pinwheel over a surface tunnel can cause the mole to relocate.

Read more at Suite101: Rid the Lawn and Garden of Moles: Pest Control for Tunneling Ground Moleshttp://www.suite101.com/content/rid-the-lawn-and-garden-of-moles-a176719#ixzz1EX865BSV

Did Spider Mites Spend the Winter in your Garden

Now that spring is here you're probably out working in the garden. If you didn't clean up properly last fall, there may be dangerous pests eating away at the emerging plants.

Learn about spider mites that might be eating away at the new growth. Take steps to get rid of them now, before you have an infestation.

Spider Mites in the Garden

Fall Garden Cleanup will Reduce Mite Damage

Nov 10, 2009 Patrice Campbell

Spider mites winter in plant debris - Mateusz Stachowski

Adult spider mites winter below the soil surface, living in plant debris until the late spring warmth brings them up to feed on tender shoots.

Spider mites are arachnids, so small they can barely be seen. But the damage caused by the piercing and sucking pests is apparent in the garden and greenhouse. Yellow or white stippling, red spots or yellow dots on the leaves are a warning that if the leaf is turned over the mite will be found amongst cast skins and bits of excrement.

The spider mite injects toxins into plant tissue while it feeds.

Read more at Suite101: Spider Mites in the Garden: Fall Garden Cleanup will Reduce Mite Damage http://www.suite101.com/content/spider-mites-in-the-garden-a168160#ixzz1EWwCqQcn

Get Rid of Insect Pests with Diatomaceous Earth

A lot of us never heard about diatomaceous earth before, even though it's been around for millions of years. If you like the idea of getting rid of garden insect pests without using chemicals, you will want information.

An organic garden pest control that can get rid of even those pesky slugs and snails without harming your vegetables and flowers will help you enjoy your bountiful harvests

Diatomaceous Earth

Organic Garden Pest Control

Nov 15, 2009 Patrice Campbell

Organic Gardening with Diatomaceous Earth - rgrabe

Microscopic plants that died 30 million years ago can help rid the garden of insect pests without harming valuable plants.

Many insect garden pests can be eliminated with treatments of diatomaceous earth (D.E.). It serves as a barrier to slugs, snails, thrips, ants, earwigs, fleas, ticks, spider mites, flea beetles and many others. D.E. is even a deterrent for bedbugs.

What is Diatomaceous Earth?

Diatomaceous earth is made up of 33% silicon, 19% calcium, 5% sodium, 3% magnesium, 2% iron and has trace minerals like boron, copper, zirconium, titanium, and manganese. It's a natural compound from diatoms mined from deposits of diatomite. Diatoms are tiny single cell algae-like plants, that have been on this earth longer than man. Their microscopic skeleton remains have build up over the last 30 million years, to thick deposits of chalky diatomite.

Read more at Suite101: Diatomaceous Earth: Organic Garden Pest Control http://www.suite101.com/content/diatomaceous-earth-a170062#ixzz1EWsPogn7Diatomaceous Earth: Organic Garden Pest Control

Don’t Spread Garden Pests or Disease

Would you be devastated to learn that you are the one who introduced a garden pest or disease into your beloved garden?

Many gardeners do just that as they tend to their garden plants.  Garden tools allow the gardener to bring contaminated soil, debris that may host pest and disease into the garden and often even introduce weeds into the garden.

The solution is to keep your garden tools clean. Simply knocking off the dried off clumps of dirt is not really cleaning garden tools, even though a lot of us are guilty of telling ourselves that they are because we’re tired at the end of a laborious gardening session.

Cleaning the garden tools isn’t a difficult task. The simple directions to make your garden tools clean and safe can be found in this article at www.FactGarden.com.

This spring, start out your gardening season right by using clean garden tools. After you have cleaned up the debris that accumulated last winter, clean the tools again. You never know what types of pest found a safe have in the debris over the winter. It’s not only important to destroy the debris, but you want to eliminate any disease, pest or other contaminates that have lingered on the garden tools after the cleanup.